Ralph Lauren acquires South African luxury brand ‘Polo’, ending decades-long trademark battle

Now, this decades-long brand confusion is finally coming to an end as Ralph Lauren has acquired the South African Polo clothing brand, with the Competition Commission recently approving the transaction.

For over 40 years, South African consumers have navigated a peculiar retail landscape where two Polo brands coexisted – distinguished primarily by the direction their horsemen faced. The American Ralph Lauren Polo featured a rider facing right to left, while the South African version showed the horse and rider facing left to right.

Professor Owen Dean, an intellectual property law expert at Stellenbosch University, provides unique insight into this longstanding legal battle, having personally represented Ralph Lauren in the initial 1977 challenge against LA Group, the South African company behind the local Polo brand.

"In the early 1970s, there was quite a common practice for local traders to go overseas, look at successful overseas trademarks, come back to South Africa, adopt them and register them," explains Professor Dean. "This is what Ralph Lauren believed was the case way back in the 1970s, and they instituted court proceedings against LA Group to reclaim, as it were, their own brands."

The initial legal confrontation spawned multiple court applications, including passing off and copyright infringement cases. Eventually, a settlement was reached during a period when many American companies were disinvesting from South Africa. Under this agreement, Ralph Lauren retained rights to use the Polo name and logo for cosmetics, while the South African company maintained rights for clothing, with the critical stipulation that the local brand's horse and rider face the opposite direction.

This arrangement persisted for decades until Ralph Lauren apparently reconsidered the wisdom of their original settlement. Now, the American luxury brand has successfully consolidated ownership of the Polo trademark in South Africa.

"There has been a capitulation, if you like, on the part of the local company," Professor Dean notes. "They have transferred all their rights or all their entitlements, lock, stock and barrel to Ralph Lauren, and so there will no longer be this dichotomy of two different Polo brands being produced by two different companies."

For South African consumers, this acquisition means the end of potential brand confusion. Moving forward, any Polo products in South African stores will exclusively represent the American Ralph Lauren brand. While some shoppers may never have noticed or cared about which direction the iconic horse and rider faced, the resolution brings clarity to a marketplace that has long featured two competing versions of what appeared to be the same luxury brand.

For those curious about how this acquisition might affect their favourite clothing items, or to hear more details about this fascinating trademark case, be sure to listen to the full podcast below, featuring Dean's firsthand account of this unique chapter in South African retail history: